Mark Ronson

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Photo by Hugo Tillman - L'uomo Vogue, December 2009

Photo by Mark Squires - L'Uomo Vogue, October 2008

Once upon a time, he was the DJ of the underground clubs of New
York. Today, he is one of the best producers in the world. The
secret? "You have to be a bit of a diplomat and a bit of a
shrink"

Seeing him so young, dressed fashionably, apparently timid, he
is striking for his soft and polite manner, far removed from the
rather posh ones of his world. And yet Mark Ronson, a
34-year-old born in London but who grew up in New York, is the new
Midas of the music world. He has launched, or relaunched,
Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Christina Aguilera and Duran Duran on to
the Olympus of the star system.

Which is quite a respectable bag for an Englishman in the Big
Apple, who at the age of five had to deal with the divorce of his
parents and his mother taking him and sisters Samantha and
Charlotte to the other side of the pond.
For him, music has always been a passion, ever since he decided to
leave university to pursue a career as DJ in the New York clubbing
scene. An immediately successful career thanks to the
stratospheric gigs he managed to obtain at private parties of some
celebrities, including the wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
in 2006.

In the meantime, the move from console to mixer was a natural one:
his first record, Version, a series of his remixes, was a
great success in 2006. This is the record that helped the revival
of some erstwhile music stars: "At the time, Lily Allen and Amy
Winehouse weren't that famous, and that record was a turning point
for them too".

Since then, Ronson has dedicated himself to a career as
producer, becoming number one over a couple of years: pop and
hip-hop artists compete to "give" him their next hits. His
work is a frantic one that often has him away from his studio in
Brooklyn and New York, where he lives with his fiancée, French
actress Josephine de la Baume, and a little dog called Maude. "I
like living with a bit of stress, and feeling hyper-active", he
confesses. He defines his work as being "halfway between
that of a diplomat and that of a shrink. I always have to get the
best from the person opposite me".